Advocacy: Meaning-Making and Mental Health

Journeying through recovery can be an arduous process, but tools like advocacy can help bring meaning to the process.

Sometimes managing a mental health condition feels more like trudging than journeying. It can be tempting to wonder why this condition has to be something I have to deal with. The depths of hurt that arrive on this journey can feel meaningless at times. One of the ways I have found to cope with these harder days is by intentionally bringing meaning to my mental health journey. A tool I use to do so is advocacy. Which looks likes this: 

Advocacy Action	Why it mattered to me
Sharing my story with law enforcement with NAMI’s In Our Own Voices project	By bringing a face to mental illness I was able to promote understanding among law enforcement officers. Doing so was important to me because I’ve seen how frustration and a lack of understanding can lead to negative outcomes when law enforcement and individuals with mental health interact.
Challenging the picture of a person with a mental health condition with policymakers by sharing my professional role as a registered nurse and my identity as someone with a lived condition	Demonstrating the various roles people with mental health conditions occupy in society challenges the idea that these conditions only have one outcome: debilitation and dependence on others/the healthcare system. While my mental health is certainly a disability, it is not always disabling and being given the space to honor all parts of myself goes a long way to building community and making meaning out of this journey.
Blogging lessons from my mental health journey on my website	Is uplifting to me because I’m able to chronicle my progress and play a role of support to others that I would have loved to have when I was just starting to negotiate all this.
Writing a book (Sixty Days: A Walk with Suicide) on one of the toughest and most dangerous aspects of my mental health journey	Putting it into words that could be shared with others has helped me find many points of connection with those who relate. It also is a source of pride for me because I got to exercise vulnerability by showing an aspect of myself to the world that few people who interact with me know. Publishing this work has made me feel more real and seen.

Advocacy may not be for everyone. And let me be clear, being someone with a lived condition does not obligate you to take any action your uncomfortable with. Advocacy helps me personally because it brings significance to what I’ve been through, and it brings me peace and happiness to know that maybe others will have a less difficult time because of something I’ve shared. Mental health conditions remain stigmatized despite their prevalence and all the stories of hope and excellence that those with lived conditions share. It is a source of pride to me to share my successes, and it is validating to me to share the parts of the journey that hurt. However you interact with your condition or bring meaning to it, I hope you know that there are tools out there to make your journey an empowering one. 

Takeaways 

Advocacy is a tool that can empower you to champion progress. There are many ways to bring purpose to what you’re going through. While you don’t have to do anything just because you have a mental health condition, advocacy is a tool that has helped me be well.